Just finishing the Trumpeter 1/350 HMS Exeter. I admit that I am more interested in "looks" rather than absolute accuracy so any comments I make should bare this in mind.

First and perhaps most importantly the kit os of the ship prior to its refit (single 4in and pole masts).

Hull is one piece with very nice plating detail.

Deck is in two pieces one for each level. Planking is nicely done and the molded on locators for the superstructure are fine and provide good fit.

Superstructure decks are in one piece thereby avoiding join lines (unfortunately the funnels are in split therefore clean up is necessary). Very crisp detail (doors, vents) on the bulkheads. Bridge nicely molded with open windows and wind breaks on front of bridge. Nicely molded rangefinders

Turrets are well shaped in one main section plus separate port and starboard local rangefinders . Individual 8" barrels are molded drilled out.4" guns in 2 pieces and a bit simple but OK. The quad machine guns are quite finely detailed.

Pole masts are nicely molded but a bit fine and therefore flex dyring rigging. Similar problem with yardarms although nicely tapered (I left the plastic masts because of the molding but replaced the yardarms with brass rod).

2 Walrius (clear plastic) supplied. Catapults are plastic but not bad. The crane is plastic and PE and very nice.

Coprehensive PE set including pre-measured railiings for main and upper decks, vertical and angled ladders, aircraft crane and funnel caps.

Overall IMHO a very nice kit that builds into an early HMS Exeter. I'm sure that it would be faily easy to convert to a post refit version (if Trumpy or AM don't do it first)

I received yesterday the Profile Morskie including blueprint foldout for HMS Exeter, and Trumpeter must have taken some ideas from them because the blueprints show the deck around B turret shows no planking (nor do they show in their drawings the dark areas around the boats on each side of the bridge). But the blueprints look good otherwise, most of the picture in the booklet are available in the internet, though.

When looking at it I realised: there is a passage underneath the shelter deck! This is entirely missing in the Trumpy kit. The forward wall of this passage aligns with the forward edge of the unplanked deck area. Also, the deck passages along the foot of the bridge superstructure are much too narrow, so there needs to be done some mods on this part as well.

I'm going to look now how this shelter deck can be partially planked, using the appropriate Evergreen pre-scribed plate stock. I'll post the result.

_________________"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

I picked up an album that belonged to an Exeter crew member, there are some detail shots of the ship plus a lot of tourist stuff. Here is a link if anyone wants to download the lot, I'll leave it open for 7 days. Enjoy and hopefully it will help with details.

Many thanks indeed for making that available to us. Not only many excellent onboard shots with useful detail, but also a fascinating overview on many places I visited during my naval career in the course of several trips to the Falklands and South Georgia - they certainly managed to pack a lot of port visits into that commission.

I'm glad the touristy photos were enjoyed. I also have some early shots of HMS Ajax from an album, I've always wanted to model the early Leander & York ships as they appeared at River Plate. I have the new Exeter kit and was wondering if anyone gave it a serious review.

Continuing my attempt to improve the Trumpeter kit, I turned my attention to the forward funnel. It seems that the slant forward trunk is much too bulky, as it has the same width as the main funnel itself.

Attachment:

IMAG2398red.jpg [ 175.89 KiB | Viewed 212 times ]

But as the Exeter was originally intended to have THREE funnels, the forward funnel was trunked into the middle one, as to relieve the bridge from funnel gases.

Attachment:

m0337_1000x.jpg [ 31.76 KiB | Viewed 212 times ]

Therefore, the forward funnel was essentially similar to the rear one, and so should be the trunk. So I cut off the slant trunk, and scratched a new one from Evergreen tube 8.7mm dia.

Attachment:

IMAG2402red.jpg [ 188.13 KiB | Viewed 212 times ]

Further to the bridge. The well moulded part from Trumpeter is completely empty, so I made a middle floor. I added walls to suggest the wheelhouse and chartroom inside, so not to look straight across from left to right: it's not a squash court after all!

Attachment:

IMAG2403red.jpg [ 139.6 KiB | Viewed 212 times ]

Apparently, there are two arched doorways to the searchlight platform behind, and a door in the middle, giving entrance to the chart room. The two side galleries seem to have open windows, I don't think these were glazed. Does anyone have an idea about that?

Attachment:

IMAG2400red.jpg [ 207.05 KiB | Viewed 212 times ]

_________________"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

Battle of the River Plate and Colourcoats (because a Royal Navy ship model deserves paint from the United Kingdom) question.

Vertical surfaces should be painted 507C Light Grey (NARN 22). Wood decks and corticene I get. However, most of t he time the metal decks are merely referred to as "dark gray" with no designation. There is the NARN23 "WWII Dark Gray Non-slip deck paint" but earlier in this thread there is mention of AP 507A. In the current NARN range there are three colors with 507A listed - one emergency mix I can probably eliminate and then two with different reflectance values. Is one of these the correct colour for the metal decks?

Good question Tracy! The relevant AFOs relating to the non-slip deck paint used by the RN at that time are AFO 1895 of 1938 and AFO of 2859 of 1939. As you can see, the non-slip deck paint was supplied by the International Paint and Compositions Company in a range of colours and a distinction is drawn between Home Fleet grey and dark grey.

Attachment:

DSC_0496 - Copy.JPG [ 99.49 KiB | Viewed 134 times ]

Attachment:

TNA 10 9 13 139 - Copy.jpg [ 125.8 KiB | Viewed 134 times ]

Attachment:

TNA 10 9 13 140 - Copy.jpg [ 115.44 KiB | Viewed 134 times ]

Given the relatively narrow range of paint colours available to UK industry in that era (the British Standard 381C range) we can speculate that the “dark grey” non-slip deck paint was BS 381C #32 in colour. This was a neutral grey without the blue element that Home Fleet grey had in its mix.

Jamie can confirm this, but based on our research that is why he offers a non-slip deck dark grey in his NARN range that is different to his Home Fleet greys. He offers two tones of Home Fleet grey, one at 10% RF and one at 13% RF, because that range of RF (10% - 13%) for Home Fleet grey is what is recorded in the files. Quite why there is this variation we do not yet understand.

I suggest that 507A itself would not have been used as a non-slip deck paint although it might have been used on horizontal surfaces where people did not routinely walk. 507A was just a formulation of ingredients that arrived at a less glossy version than 507B of the colour Home Fleet grey. We have discovered that there were other formulations used by the RN and RAN to achieve even matter still finishes of the colour Home Fleet grey.

In many cases where people write 507A what they really mean is Home Fleet grey.

But in a nutshell, in 1939, if you are looking at something dark, you could have had a deck painted in non-slip dark grey or non-slip HFG (of whichever tone). On your model it’s your choice based on assessment of B&W photos or intuition! (And don’t forget the black option either.)

Last edited by dick on Tue Feb 05, 2019 6:07 am, edited 1 time in total.